Originally Posted by Snowolf

Well, don`t be too literal with this "always look downhill" advice. I am sure what your instructor was trying to to do was to get you to not be looking down at your feet (this is something I see my students do too much and I have to constantly nag them) I think a better "command" is to tell the student to "look where you are going" If I understand your description correctly, you were traversing across the hill on your heel edge attempting initiate the toeside turn? If so, there is really nothing you do with regard to looking as you should already be facing in the general direction of your toeside turn. One thing you can do is to point down the hill with your front arm. This will help you develop the habit of positioning your shoulder over the toe edge to help you make a more effective turn initiation.

A little thing that really helps too is to dip the front shoulder down toward your board a little. Think of trying to make your shoulders parallel to the slope as you point down the hill. Doing this keeps you positioned in a weight forward stance at a time when it is too easy to lean back up the hill. In addition, it is more than pushing the shin into the boot. You need to think in terms of driving your knee out and down in front of you toward the snow. If done correctly, you will feel the weight on the ball of your foot. As you drive the knee down, also pull it in toward your rear binding a bit. This adds some rotational force to your board as well as torsional twist.

In any turn, the lower you get by flexing (closing) the ankles and knees to get lower, the more effective these movements are going to be and the more stable you will remain through your turn.

Originally Posted by fayewolf

i find myself essentially going down the slope diagonally on my toe edge fairly quickly. This is when I momentarily look up the mountain (away from looking down the hill), i find it easier to complete the turn.

Originally Posted by fayewolf

I took another lesson because it's cheaper and I am really dumb in learning this sport for some reason.
...
Well, I hope this is progress, albeit slower.

Originally Posted by slyder

it sounds like you aren't pressing enough to get the board to pull you completely into the turn. Almost like you are balancing on the toe edge making you just go diagonally.
Is your body leaned back while your toes are pushing onto the edge, basically creating a balance beam so to say??

Don't fret though, it sounds like you are progressing and you are feeling and realizing the physics of the board/body movements. A few more times and this will all of a sudden just click and become second nature.

Originally Posted by Bones

Actually it sounds like pretty good progression to me.

I remember what it was like for me the first half of my first season and it was almost exactly like your description: a little frustration sneaking in and a whole bunch of analysing.

I still take weekly lessons and see the never ever and beginner groups going thru exactly what you're going thru. And then hear the same stories over beers later on (pretty social lesson program at my hill).

And from what I've experienced, seen and heard, you're at the hardest, most frustrating part of the learning curve and you're certainly not alone in experiencing it. Just keep doing what you're doing and you'll push over the hump. And THEN, the progress comes fast and furious and you feel like you're getting better every run, every turn!

Originally Posted by Snowolf

Couple of things then......

So it sounds like you are making the transition from your heel edge to your toe edge; going through the fall line and all. This is good. Turn initiation is the hardest part to get. Now you need to just work on turn completion. In addition, set up your shoulders sooner; before your board enters the fall line. As soon as the board enters the fall line, push down on that front toe to quickly steer it back out of the fall line. If the board does not respond quickly enough, increase that torsional twist by pressing harder on the toe of the front foot.

By forcing yourself to keep looking down the mountain, I would wager that you have your upper body twisted just a bit toward your heel edge and this is working against you. Try holding your front arm up just a bit(around waist level) so that you can see your fist in your peripheral vision. This will allow you to visually check your body alignment. Make sure that you have positioned your front shoulder over the toe edge of the board and hold it there.

Just a question:.....is the instructor trying to get you to not turn up the hill and instead come out of the turn and set up for your heel side? The reason I as this is because once a student "gets it" they hold these turning forces too long and forget to "unturn" and they wind up pointed up the hill and spin around switch. It is a very common issue and once they can turn, they forget to come out of their turns early enough.

Definitely apply toe pressure to your rear foot as you come out of the toe side turn. Remember the "one" "two" count for good turn completion. Ideally, your turn shape should resemble the letter C where you cross the fall line at turn completion, then immediately set up for the next turn. Now that is the ideal, but lets work up to that point. For now, lets make your turn shape just a bit more open to resemble the letter S going down the hill. Instead of working hard to bring the board completely across the fall line at turn completion, bring it out of the turn at say a 45 degree traverse across the slope and then initiate the new turn.

These are what we call "open ended turns" and while not text book "correct", they are in reality what most of us do in our riding. Mainly to to maintain our speed. As you know, completing turns slows you down and on the steeps we want to close our turns. On a green bunny slope, doing this can be problematic as it slows us down too much. Going too slow makes snowboard control awkward.

Another advantage to making your first linked turns a bit open, is that when you are diagonal across the slope, it is less dramatic of a change going from one edge to other. If you are across the fall line, you feel more of a sensation of "going to your downhill edge" and this really spooks the new rider. By being more diagonal, you really don`t get this creepy sensation. Try this open ended turn technique next time and see if you can`t improve your linked turns by being a bit more fluid. Once you get this down, simply work on bringing the board more across the fall line as you complete your turns.